What alpha is

Alpha comes after the discovery phase of a project (where you learn about the problem) and before the beta phase (where you’ll be aiming to release the first version of your service to users). Alpha is where you try out different solutions to the problems you learned about during discovery. It’s an opportunity to refine prototypes and work towards a beta release. It also provides the idea or service that will be taken forward to beta. It is also a chance to stop if the ideas do not work.

The purpose of alpha

The alpha phase is the time for you to build prototypes, test different ideas and define your minimum viable product (MVP). It’s an opportunity for new approaches and to challenge the way things have been done in the past.

It’s not always as easy as going straight from discovery to alpha to beta to live. You plan your approach to alpha at the end of discovery this might mean multiple alphas. The individual stages of projects are not certain and your plans should change as new information becomes available.

Prioritise learning about your riskiest assumptions at this stage. It’s an opportunity to test the biggest risks and challenges to your project. It’s also an opportunity to test how you would create an end to end service.

Test your ideas

Initially, the ideas you test do not need to be high quality. Testing with real users will help you understand which ideas may work. Your prototypes just need to be good enough to test your assumptions. The learnings will help you increase the quality with new iterations.

Alpha is a chance to determine what the minimum viable product or service is. At this stage you will not have completed your project, but you will have evidence to back up your future plans.

At the end of the alpha stage, you should be able to decide which of your tested ideas you are taking to the beta stage.